It's not your imagination — your appliance wash cycle is taking forever

If you feel like household chores are taking more time than they need to, you're not alone. Average times for some household appliances have been creeping up.

According to Choice Australia, the average cycle time for a front-loading washing machine is now three-quarters of an hour longer than ten years ago.

For machines that are made to save us a job, they sure can take their time to get it done.

Seven Sharp asked Bryan Wall from Consumer NZ why some washing appliances and dishwashing cycles can motor on for hours.

"We have a lot of complaints from members, such as, 'Why is my front loader taking two to three hours to do a wash on a cotton cycle?'

It's all in the name of water and energy efficiency.

Seven Sharp sought out the long and short of different wash settings, kicking things off by putting a load of dishes through their paces in a dishwasher.

The dishwasher they used consumed 13 and a half litres of water, and its daily setting took around two hours. In comparison, by putting the same amount of water into a sink, the dishes could have been cleaned the old-fashioned way in about 15 minutes.

Wall tested out three different washing machine cycles.

First, he compared a front loader's standard Cotton cycle to two shorter cycles — Everyday and Quick. The Everyday cycle came out looking the best. It may have removed 7% less dirt than the cotton option, but it was 42 minutes quicker and used half the energy.

Whereas the Quick wash couldn't keep up, removing 25% less dirt than the cotton cycle.

"To remove the dirt, you need to agitate the clothes. The fibres of the fabric need to be immersed in water and moved around so dirt can get shaken out of the clothes — that takes time. You can't do it in 30 minutes," said Wall.

Top loaders typically take less time than front loaders, but that can come at the cost of cleanliness.

"[In top loaders] the clothes are submerged in the water, so they tend to soak more, but there's not quite as much agitation. Which is why in our testing, we find that top loaders don't tend to remove as much dirt as front loaders," explained Wall.

All that said, the above results were on specific models and might not apply to your appliances at home.

"Every machine's going to be different. Try them out, read the manual, check out test results and see how you go," said Wall.

If the wash cycle of your dishwasher or washing machine still remains a mystery, remember those magic words: Read the manual.